More leafing

Leaves after using heat tool. I used a Clover Mini Iron with various attachments for it as well as some from my wood burning tool. They were a bit trickier because they were thinner and shorter than the Mini Iron was made to take.

This is the backside of one leaf showing the organza and the wire between the layers. I need to learn to place the wire more accurately and follow it in the tooling. This one isn't too bad but another one is quite messy.

 Three leaves. I like the other colours within these examples. I thought they looked like mistakes at first but prefer them now.

This picture shows the leaves with the sharp line done on top. I used a pointy tip and drew the lines, then turned them over and used a rounder tip to push up the sections between the lines. on the variegated leaves I added the smaller veins first. On the more olive leaves I did the main vein and added the smaller ones after the rounder tooling.

These have had the rounder tip used. On the two shown here I did the main vein then the round tip then went back to the upper side and added more veins.  

Five completed leaves!

Leaves



I am finished the Millinery course I have been taking at George Brown College in Toronto.  I had to travel there and stayed with a friend. Usually I went on the Sunday evening and returned on Tuesday late afternoon so it took a large amount of time for one three hour class. I stayed with a friend. I could have taken the Monday train but had I missed it I would have missed the class so I went early.
Now that it is over I had some extra time on my hands. It has been so hectic trying to work, look after the kids (who styed with their father while I was gone) that my place was a mess. After some major cleaning and tidy-ing I allowed myself some creative me time and decided to indulge in something I have wanted to do for years.
I have long been fascinated with millinery trimmings so I decided to try to make some leaves and flowers based on information from books and the internet. I combined several methods in doing these which I will post later. I have some cleaning up to do before I can find my books right now.
I started with some silk I had on hand. It is a silk satin with a tendency to curl to the wrong side. It took both dye and paint beautifully. I used Folk Art Fabric and Setacolor paints as well as Colorhue dyes to get the effect I wanted. The silk was underpainted with the paints but I painted with the dyes overtop to get it a bit deeper. I would have thought the opposite would be the way. Live and Learn.
I heat set the paints before I used the dye. You can see the paint as the lighter tone of green and blotch red in the upper part of the image.

Some of the leaves were cut with the satin side up and some with the matte side. The painting was done on both sides depending on which side I intended to use to the lines aren't as noticeable as the lower left leaf suggests. 

After the dyes dried, I cut the leaf shape on the bias and used a fabric glue to glue them to a piece of orgaza I had dyed previously with a piece of florist's wire in between. This technique comes from here: http://presentperfectcreations.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/a-mini-tutorial-on-how-to-make.html . Previous to this I had been using silks that I fused together with fusible web. I have pictures of those as well that I will share.

I like the way they look already. The blotchy bits are my favourite parts. Next comes shaping with a heat tool.

Leaves Falling Overhead

Update- the hat was delivered to a Guild member who is transporting a carload to Fergus today to be juried for Threadworks2010. This is my first entry into any juried show. It doesn't matter to me if it is accepted. Of course, it would be great if it was, I just really wanted to get something done for the show.
Rosalind suggested the name I used: Leaves Falling Overhead. Cute and clever, Rosalind. I love it, thank you!

Leaf Hat

Crowning glory Trees

Trunks Lining in shot silk

Tam on a ham!

This hat was made in the theme of "Trees". I was very literal in my interpretation but it has some subtle Canadian symbolism thrown in. The dark base has copper flecks is represents the Canadian Shield and our natural resources which form the base of our geography and our economy, the top represents our society's basis on a cultural mosaic, and throughout the leaves and lining the top is a red/turquoise shot silk that represents the French/English union that our country was founded on.

I used the scarf technique of bias strips of silk and wool to represent tree trunks and the leaf applique for the tree top. I hoped to put it in a juried show but am not sure if I will since I missed my shipping deadline. I thought it was due next weekend. Ooops.

I am trying to reach a Guild member who is travelling with a car load of items to drop off but cannot find her email.

Now to think of a name. "Slip into Fall" is the current favourite.

I love the name Rosalind has suggested- Leaves Falling Overhead- and so it has been named. Thanks Rosalind!

Leaves

I am working on an applique design of autumn leaves. The plan is to make a beret type hat with it.

Cut out and laid out.

Half stitched. I used a satin stitch in a toning burgundy/brown colour.

Stitching done.

I think this would be a gorgeous pillow. The problem is that kids and cats sit on them and lie on them and sometimes even spit up on them (mainly the cats nowadays). Hopefully a hat will be treated with more respect. Although, knowing both my kids and my cats you never can tell.